“Today, most of the world’s unreached people
live in an area called the 10/40 Window. These people are of diverse ethnic
and religious backgrounds. The question we all have is, What do we need
to do to reach these people? The answer? We have to find some common ground.”
– Rick Leatherwood

Rick Leatherwood is a “Christian missionary” and
the president of Kairos International, an organization whose stated mission,
according to their web site is:

“To improve the relationships between Muslims
and Christians...By creating forums and resources, that will foster mutual
respect; And enable us all to live more fully, the truth as revealed by
God in the Holy Scriptures.”

Now I ask you: Is the call of a Christian missionary
to “improve the relationships between Muslims and Christians?” Of course
not! The great commission, as given by Christ and recorded in the Gospel
of Matthew, is:

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
(Matthew 28:19)

So, the obvious question is: Why on earth would
Rick Leatherwood, a Christian missionary, make “improving the relationships
between Muslims and Christians” his organization’s mission statement?
You see, that is the goal of the United Nations, not the church of Jesus
Christ.

Nothing I have witnessed in my Christian experience
has distorted, distracted, devalued, disrupted, deterred and derailed
the preaching of repentance and faith in Christ more than this “new evangelical”
obsession with relationships. It is a humanistic gospel with a counterfeit
Christ that promotes compromise and consensus, downplays absolutes and
obedience and exalts people as if WE somehow deserve honor and praise
in our affections toward one another. In short, it is idolatry.

“There is only one relationship that really matters,
and that is your personal relationship to your personal Redeemer and Lord.
If you maintain that at all costs, letting everything else go, God will
fulfill His purpose through your life.“ – Oswald Chambers

In spite of Rick Leatherwood’s “evangelical” assertion,
searching for “common ground” is neither a biblical concept nor a new
idea. It is an old transformational Marxist strategy made popular by men
like Antonio Gramsci and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, designed to “win
friends and influence people” toward the socialist cause of world order.
Jesus never pursued common ground as a way to “reach” people and neither
did His disciples. They did not need pragmatism because they trusted in
the power of God.

Searching for common ground is one of the favorite
shortcuts being preached and practiced by many in the church today who
DO NOT HAVE and WILL NOT SURRENDER TO the sovereignty and authority of
God and His Word. These are the sorts of schemes and scams that are formulated
and forwarded by church growth gurus and marketing experts who do not
believe God nor take Him at His word; and are just the kind of contraptions
confused Christians readily run to when Jesus isn’t enough to get the
results they envision. So, instead of preaching repentance and risking
rejection or worse, they go about looking for all kinds of creative ways
to widen the gate that leads to eternal life and make evangelism easier.

To Preach or to Reach?

“Reach” is one of those ambiguous and multi-purpose
words that mean different things to different people; and when misused,
can be very deceiving to the Body of Christ and therefore very destructive.
When well intentioned, mission minded folks hear “reach” used in a Christian
context or setting, they instantly assume it means a conversion to Christ;
and when stirred emotionally under controlled conditions, will likely
do WHATEVER IT TAKES to support and promote the ones using it.

They fail to understand that there are those among
us masquerading as missionaries who embrace a social gospel that vaguely
resembles biblical Christianity and promotes, through hyper-emotionalism,
a few similar ideals, like unity, peace, health, harmony and brotherly
love while minimizing or dismissing altogether the more exclusive and
offensive aspects of the Christian faith that the world at large will
never accept.

Humanists also use the word “reach,” but with an
entirely different agenda; and by simply employing the same terminology
Christians use, they are often able to co-opt the church into socialist
ventures here and abroad and gain access to not only generous funding
but also many enthusiastic volunteers; and it is those volunteers from
YOUR church that add to the legitimacy of their endeavors and help frame
a facade that not only facilitates spiritual chicanery but also protects
the wily wolves within.

If someone is actually “reached” for Christ it will
be because the Holy Spirit has supernaturally convicted them of sin and
brought them into repentance and faith, not because you or I have somehow
managed to manipulate them into a conversion experience through OUR relationship.
Our job as Christians is not to “reach” but to preach: “Christ crucified.”
It is a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ that the lost are in dire
need of, not a relationship with you and me; and, as long as we emphasize
the latter, the former will remain secondary and be of little or no value
to them; which is why there is nothing in scripture about the disciples
ever preaching or practicing what we call “friendship evangelism.”

“I charge thee therefore before God, and the
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing
and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season;
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the
time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their
own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned
unto fables.” – 2nd Timothy 4:1-4

When we busy ourselves trying to “reach” someone
for Christ, we focus on results and relationships rather than the Word
of God; and in our pride, impatience and misguided zeal, cease to trust
Him with the outcome and end up compromising the commands of scripture
with all sorts of ecclesiastical gadgets and gimmicks in a do-it-yourself,
any-way-you-can, it-all-depends-on-me effort to convert the unconvicted
by artificial means. As many of you know, there are quite a few folks
around that practice this kind of "evangelism."

Rick Leatherwood is one such fellow. He believes
Christians can “reach” Muslims by finding common ground through the book
of Proverbs; telling them it contains the wisdom of Allah, which of course,
is utter blasphemy.

Dialectic: “The process in Hegelian and Marxist
thought in which two apparently opposed ideas, the thesis and antithesis,
become combined in a unified whole, the synthesis.” – Encarta World
English Dictionary

Jesus Christ is not the Son of Allah. And, if your
evangelism or mission effort begins by trying to pass Allah off as God,
I don’t care how many so-called “converts” you might claim; you are preaching
heresy – end of story.

Allah is a pagan moon god that was worshiped alongside
many other false gods long before Mohammed or Islam ever came into being.
Regardless of what Mr. Leatherwood tells his audience and associates;
Allah IS NOT another name for the God of the Bible. The Lord is VERY PARTICULAR
about the names we use for Him; and nowhere in scripture is He ever referred
to as “Allah.”

Here is just a sample of the synthetic theology
Rick Leatherwood promotes from an article he authored entitled: “Snowflakes:
The Common Ground of God’s Wisdom”

“So by sharing God’s wisdom with Muslims, we
are helping them come to understand the true character and nature of Allah
(Please know that Allah is simply the Arabic word for God, a word used
by Arab Christians 600 years before Islam). While Arab Christians know
the true character of Allah, most Arab Muslims do not…So the cross is
not the place to begin when reaching out to the people of Islam. We begin
by establishing common ground through the wisdom of God in Proverbs and,
like the snow softening the earth in Isaiah’s prophecy, the wisdom of
Allah is allowed to prepare their hearts for the love of Allah. And so
the common ground of God’s wisdom begins to create openings where there
were none! Using Proverbs in this way is something new. Some mission leaders
are ready, and already moving in new creative ways. But others are still
stuck in conventional patterns of ministry that have failed far more than
they have succeeded in the past.”

Someone needs to inform Mr. Leatherwood that God
measures our success by our obedience, not our numbers. And, whether he
knows it or not; while claiming to convert Muslims into Christians overseas
using “new and creative” methods, he is actually converting Christians
here in America into the acceptance of Allah as God and, in the process,
advancing the occult agenda of a one-world religion and a kingdom on earth
where all gods and beliefs are considered equally valid.

That’s just what the dialectic does. It always begins
on common ground with an overemphasis on relationships and results in
relativism, accomplishing the reverse of its advertised agenda.

You see, I have a personal interest in alerting
my readers to the errant teaching of Rick Leatherwood. He recently gained
the audience and respect of a dear friend of mine and somehow managed
to win him over with this dialectic notion of Allah being God; and much
to my dismay, persuaded him to spread that leaven to many others who trust
his counsel; and so I write to warn you and yours because that is what
a watchman does.

Spiritual success and Christian unity are never
achieved or sustained at the expense of truth; and the day may come when
we are each tested to see if God’s Word is more important to us than results
and relationships. The fall of man occurred in Eden over an unhealthy
interest in results and relationships. Eve reached out for the forbidden
to obtain gratifying results rather than trusting and obeying the Word
of God. Adam chose to follow her in order to save their relationship.
My prayer is that we will let their terrible failure serve as an admonition
to always put God's Word first, even at the risk of forfeiting results
and relationships.

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the
kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” – Proverbs 27:6

Paul Proctor, a rural resident of the Volunteer
state and seasoned veteran of the country music industry, retired from
showbiz in the late 1990's to dedicate himself to addressing important
social issues from a distinctly biblical perspective. As a freelance writer
and regular columnist for NewsWithViews.com,
he extols the wisdom and truths of scripture through commentary and insight
on cultural trends and current events. His articles appear regularly on
a variety of news and opinion sites across the internet and in print.
Paul may be reached at watchman@usa.com

In spite of Rick Leatherwood’s “evangelical”
assertion, searching for “common ground” is neither a biblical concept
nor a new idea. It is an old transformational Marxist strategy made popular
by men like Antonio Gramsci...